We suggest 5 more ABC shows which can star PC, not in cameos but as the leading lady! Read on to find out…

Reports suggest that Priyanka Chopra has been roped in by a Hollywood agent to star in an episode of the hit ABC comedy Modern Family, which is in its sixth season currently.

How to get away with a murder: A law professor, Viola Davis, gets entangled in a murder plot while teaching students at a prestigious university; sounds intriguing? Well, now picture PC playing the lead in this American legal drama, that sure sounds like something we’d want to watch!

Castle: Priyanka as the no-nonsense detective Kate Beckett would be the most fun thing to watch as we have already seen her prove her worth in a similar role in Don and Don 2! Plus, romancing a sexy writer like Richard Castle is what makes it all the more appealing!

Revenge: Featuring in a story which is about a daughter (Emilia Thorne) trying to avenge her father and clear his name which was wrongly dragged to the mud for treason, PC can win a lot of hearts! She can act with the steely-eyed determination mixed with a certain sexiness that revenge demands, oh-so-perfectly!

Scandal: PC is such a sorted personality, she always has the right thing to say or the most phenomenal thing to do! Seeing her in Kerry Washington’s role of Olivia Pope in this ABC show would be rather interesting. One of India’s most sought after celebrity playing the forerunner of a crisis management firm, how cool is that!

Agents of Shield: It would be an obvious choice to cast Priyanka in the Marvel show as Agent Carter (and reports say that ABC is coming up with an exclusive show on Agent Carter herself!) Picturing PC playing the role of a strong single woman in 1940s America, going on secret missions under cover and saving the world every now and then as Captain AMerica’s Peggy Carter is not that difficult!

The former actor will play Madeleine Stowe’s character in the desi version of Revenge

Media reports suggest that Salman Khan’s ex-flame Sangeeta Bijlani is all set to appear on the small screen. She has been roped in to play a vamp on a new daily soap. The series is rumoured to be the desi version of Revenge. Sangeeta’s character will be similar to Madeleine Stowe’s onscreen avatar – Victoria Grayson, the stunning and influential matriarch of the Grayson family.

Well after doing positive roles in films, this will be the first time that Sangeeta will attempt a negative character. Sangeeta was initially supposed to make a comeback with Onir’s film Shab, but the role required the actor to be erotic and expose a lot. The actor backed out of the project. Rumours suggest that Salman and his family coerced her into rejecting the project.

The Khan family even discouraged Sangeeta from doing Bigg Boss 8 – so we hear. Guess the Khans approved the remake of Revenge and her character in the show.

Looks like Bollywood has not stopped ‘lifting’ ideas from the west

Bollywood has always been in the news for ‘stealing’ or ‘lifting’ ideas from their Hollywood counterparts. However this blatant copying is euphemised as “inspired by” these days.

The recent Bollywood movie which seems “ to be inspired” from the west is Akshay Kumar starrer Boss. Yes, you read it right. In the title track of the movie, Khiladi Kumar is shown standing atop a car, tilted at an odd angle with the huge expanse of a desert in the background. It looks like the scene has been lifted from a song by MIA Bad Girls.

Not only this, but the poster of Irrfan Khan-Nimrit Kaur starrer The Lunchbox which won millions of hearts is also “inspired” from the poster of a Hollywood movie named Looper. However one of the producers of the film, Guneet Monga says she has no clue about the ‘coincidence’. “It’s an original piece of work by our designers and I have no idea about the similarity between the two.” Yes, we believe you Guneet!

Wait, that’s not all. The poster of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming movie Ram Leela starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh seems “inspired” from the poster of an American TV soap opera named Revenge. Well we think rather than yelling at Deepika, SLB should have yelled at the designers who “lifted” errr…got “inspired” by Revenge’s poster.

In the past too, Bollywood has shamelessly copied posters from the west. These include films like John Day, Murder 3, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara, Ra.One, Heroine amongst many more.

All we can say is that in Bollywood, inspiration is a good way to mask allegations of blatantly lifting someone else’s art work and passing it off as an original creation.

The ‘Prince’ of Telugu cinema is as daring and dashing as ever in a film which has all the elements of a potboiler

‘Prince’ Mahesh Babu is synonymous with style. And his latest tryst with style is Dookudu. The record breaking screen numbers apart, Dookudu has succeeded in sustaining the style quotient so often associated with Mahesh Babu movies. Daring and dashing – That is what the movie’s posters screamed. Mahesh Babu lives up to that macho tag and exudes a flamboyant charm in the movie, albeit with a lesser impact than his blockbuster hit Pokkiri, directed by Puri Jagannadh.

The story unfurls thus. Shankar Narayana (Prakash Raj), whose heart always beats for the poor, falls into the trap of a politico-underworld nexus. After a near-fatal attack on Shankar, his family shifts to the badlands of Mumbai. His son Ajay (Mahesh Babu), of course, is destined to grow up as a cop who doesn’t know the meaning of fear. Mumbai being the ideal landscape for daredevilry, director Sreenu Vaitla unleashes Ajay to crush many gangsters with awesome power and ruthless indifference. His heroics get rewarded in the form of a gigantic task. With such a cop in its ranks, who else but Ajay could be entrusted with the task of fixing underworld’s most dreaded and elusive face – Nayak (Sonu Sood). Now, the cop dons the mask of an MLA to gain access to Naik’s web of deceit and debauchery. The daredevil then plots the imminent fall of the dreaded Naik gang.

Mahesh Babu needs to make little effort to be his usual macho, stylish self. Samantha is just another chirpy character with a pretty face, as is expected. It is heartening to see Prakash Raj in a positive role and the actor can switch mannerisms with immaculate ease. Sonu Sood makes his presence felt. Brahmanandam turns into a laughter machine as Vaitla’s penchant for comedy comes to the fore.

Dookudu’s main flaw is that it fails to keep up with the tremendous pace it generates in the first half. That is a turn off, but through late twists and thrills, the movie bounces back into the genre of a sheer entertainer. Adithya, Abhimanyu Singh, Vennela Kishore and Nassar are the other actors. Dookudu’s story is by Gopi Mohan, but Kona Venkat’s dialogues prove to be the differentiators. KV Guhan is behind the camera. Thaman scores the music.

Dookudu has all the elements of a potboiler – the unholy nexus between underworld and politicos, passionate romance, shrill revenge and the glory of father-son relationship. The movie is almost certain to make a box office splash, but if fans are expecting the lofty fizz of Pokkiri, perhaps there is some disappointment in store.